Attack on Pearl Harbor

• Were there any key events that occurred in the film that could have changed the events of the attack, had it gone differently?

• How is the attack portrayed in the clip?

• What language does the narrator use to describe the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor?

• How might this film have influenced American opinion of the Japanese after the attack?

• Do you think that FDR was right in declaring war on the Japanese?

• What is the underlying perspective that Americans had against the Japanese after the attack on Pearl Harbor? Was this perspective warranted?

• In the second video, the narrator states that the Japanese were following their Axis companions by “acting first, declare war later”. Do you think they had a valid point? Was the attack unprovoked?

• Imagine you are a white American citizen, listening to this speech on the radio during 1941. What is your reaction?

Imagine you are a Japanese American citizen with no loyalty to the Japanese Empire and you have heard the news about the attack. You also saw the second clip and

heard Roosevelt’s speech. What is your reaction?

• How did you come up with your perspective?

• What was your thinking and writing process? (Did you come up with a back story? How did the sources we looked at influence your perspective? What else could have been added to help?